Tag: black history

The tumultuous decade that followed the Civil War failed to enshrine Black voting and civil rights, and instead paved the way for more than a century of entrenched racial injustice. By Nicholas Lemann Children in elementary school often come home with the idea that the purpose of the Civil War was to end slavery-but […]

To make a long story short, we have been taught a system of fear and intimidation from the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and the different mechanisms and psychological methods that were perpetuated on us during our sojourn to America. This has been an ongoing theme from generation to generation where we fear the loss of a job, position or title in order to have things. We sacrifice what is in the best interest of us as a people for us to be really free and have the same equal rights and mandates of other people.

Eric Hackley: You have been consistently saying that blacks need to pull together, speak out and express themselves. Over the years have we made any progress in that capacity? James Redmond: No! Perhaps, very minute. Very few people will speak out and I don’t know why that is. Some are afraid of screwing up their jobs and livelihood. Even when you have a job, you should speak out when right is right and wrong is wrong.

By Frederick Douglass—A speech given at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852—”What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim…There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”

Eric Hackley talks with Wayne Township Trustee Richard Stevenson, retired FWCS Educator Velvet Brooks and retired laborer Archie Smith. All three graduated Central High School during the Civil Rights Movement and during the time of the March on Washington and went on to be successful in their respective careers.

Among those on hand to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech in Fort Wayne and to welcome his nephew, minister and educator Dr. Derek King to the city, was the Queens African-American Literature and Art Club (Queens) Inc. Members of the group gave dramatic presentations of some of history’s great women liberators, including Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman and Mary McLeod Bethune.

By Dr. Clifford F. Buttram Jr.—Recently, I attended the University of Saint Francis’ 50th Anniversary celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. address at the former Scottish Rite. During the luncheon events, Dr. King’s nephew, Dr. Derek King, spoke about three ills that continue to affect the African American community: poverty, ignorance and in equality. Interestingly, these three issues have not fundamentally changed for the black community since Dr. King’s 1963 visit nor do they appear to even be relevant to many people in 2013. Why? Because to not adequately address poverty (from a local, state, and national level) underscores and validates multiple levels of ignorance within factions of our society which ultimately, and negatively, affect the equality that was battled for over the past 150 years. History is made every minute, but we live it through the past.

THE HACKLEY REPORT By Eric Donald Hackley—Willie Lynch may have given his speech in Virginia, but his descendants live in Fort Wayne. My question is, in the Willie Lynch letter, it talks about how if the slave mentality isn’t corrected within the first 300 years, it will become perpetual. It has now been 301 years, what’s the verdict?

FORT WAYNE—The nephew of perhaps the world’s greatest civil and human rights icon is slated to kick off a landmark event early next week. On June 5, the University of St. Francis is scheduled to host a series of gatherings designed to highlight the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s views on education and how they can be used to shape today’s world.

By George E. Curry, NNPA Columnist—When Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress comrades were plotting to overthrow the white minority-rule apartheid regime in South Africa, Lilies Farm in Rivonia, just north of Johannesburg, served as their secret hideout.

Retired Indiana State Police Officer Terry Lymon delivers a very passionate, yet intellectual plea on the importance of black men knowing their constitutional rights. Mr. Lymon suggests that some corrupt officers use your ignorance of your rights against you. If the police know or think that you may know your rights, that may eliminate or lessen their potential deviant behavior against you.

Ms. Cole discusses how she was abused as a 3 year-old child at home by her parents to the extent that she didn’t have the opportunity to worry about Mississippi racism, segregation, lynchings, politics and Historic White Supremacists.

In my years of being in business, Mrs. King has the highest credit scores that I have ever seen. In this interview, Mrs. King shares her philosophical insights into how she lives comfortably and basically stress free, knowing that creditors and banks are lined up anxiously waiting to loan her whatever amount of money she wants.